On Friday, Sepp Straka made a seven-bird flight at Plantation Golf Course in Kapalua.
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On Plantation course in Kapalua on Friday, mild conditions kept scores very low. In fact, of the 59 players on the field, only two scored above par. Thirty-two players shot rounds five under (68) or better, and as many as eight players signed for a 64 – that’s nine below par!
Posting opening rounds of 69-65 (-12) would normally put you well on the leaderboard. But this week Seppa Straki after 36 holes he is still outside the top ten, four shots off the lead by Hideki Matsuyama. On Friday, however, Straka earned quite the honor, making an incredible seven straight birdies on the back nine before finally ending his streak with a par at No. 17.
“Well, I love turkey, so I did three in a row in 12 and I was pretty happy with that,” Straka said after his round. “Then I birdied 13, 14, 15, which were quite up for grabs, so I was thinking about six in a row, I never made it to seven, but yeah, I got a little hot on the iron, I hit some good shots and I was able to make putts “
When the streak finally ended with a par on the 17th hole, Straka told his partner: Patton Kizzirewas more disappointed than he was.
“I had a putt on 17, but I missed it, and he immediately told me he was pissed at me,” Straka said.
So what happened?
“I hit it from about 20 feet and missed,” Straka said.
Follow-up: Was it devastating?
“It was devastating,” he said. “It was a difficult scene, but I can handle it.
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“[Playing partners Kizzire and Stephan Jaegar] they were both quite disappointed with my ending (laughter).”
Making seven birdies in a row is quite an achievement (the PGA Tour record is nine in a row), and one Straka says he doesn’t remember ever doing it before.
“I definitely didn’t get eight, so I think seven is definitely my maximum,” he said.
Although Straka had to convert seven putts to keep the streak alive, he attributed the birdie to his excellent iron play.
“I was hitting iron shots really close,” he said. “10 I reached a height of five feet. 11 I hit him 10 feet. I’m just getting within 10 feet. It can be tricky with the wind here, it wasn’t that windy today, but it’s also a little hard to tell where exactly it’s coming from, so it’s hard to really get a shot of it in less than 10 feet and I managed to do it for a short distance.
Even though he is currently a Chaser in the leaderboard, with such a low score, anything can happen within two rounds.
